Ezra Miller: ‘I was told I’d made a mistake coming out publicly’

Ezra Miller was warned that he’d “made a mistake” when he came out publicly in 2012.

The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them star told Out magazine that he was “queer” and “very much in love with no one in particular” during an interview five years ago. He has now admitted that after the revelation, people commented that he was ruining his career by going public about his sexual orientation.

“I was told by a lot of people I’d made a mistake,” he said to Shortlist magazine. “(By) folks in the industry, folks outside the industry. People I’ve never spoken to. They said there’s a reason so many gay, queer, gender-fluid people in Hollywood conceal their sexual identity, or their gender identity in their public image. I was told I had done a ‘silly’ thing in… thwarting my own potential to be a leading man.”

He went on to reveal that his doubters made him question his decision, as they scared him by saying he was squandering his potential and ruining his early work in films like We Need to Talk About Kevin.

“”You’ve made a mistake’ is such a hard thing to hear. Maybe if I’d actually made a serious mistake?” he explained. “I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong, though there have been moments of doubt as a result of those conversations. But… what they said was, in fact, ‘rubbish’, as you might say. We are the ones. It’s up to us to manifest the world we want to exist in. But we’re ready. Humans are ready.”

Ezra, 25, proved his critics wrong by landing a role in the Harry Potter spin-off franchise and winning the part of The Flash in the upcoming Justice League, making him the first ‘queer’ actor to play a superhero.

When asked if he feels pressure to be a role model, he replied: “I don’t feel pressure. Pressure would only come from a dam, or a block. And when I came out I took the block away, removed the dam. I’ve undammed my identity in the world.”